


Dark and Darker

by inthemouthofthewolf



Category: Dishonored (Video Game), Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Crossover, Crossover Pairings, Eventual Smut, Fluff and Smut, Human Rumplestiltskin, Human!Rumplestiltskin, M/M, Service Top, What Have I Done, What Was I Thinking?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-10-19
Updated: 2013-10-19
Packaged: 2017-12-29 20:39:08
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1009833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inthemouthofthewolf/pseuds/inthemouthofthewolf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Look, I like writing weird crossovers, okay? I think it's fun and I like to be creative and throw things together and see what happens. I'm like a high-energy reckless verbal chemist.</p><p>Corvo is sent by the Outsider on an ambiguously and cryptically stated mission and he meets human!Rum and a young Baelfire along the way.</p><p>I think this is borne from my desire to lovingly top the living daylights out of human!Rumplestiltskin. He's so cute and pitiful. I needed someone who could make it work.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dark and Darker

“You have to look after him, Corvo. You have to make sure he fulfils his destiny.”

Of course, the Outsider was cryptic in his last remarks before he sent his champion hurtling to a distant world. With Emily having no need of him, not now, not ever again, Corvo didn’t have a reason to remain; he didn’t enjoy being gnawed on by plague rats. When he abandoned his mask and blade and boarded a ship to run away from every single thing in the world, he didn’t for one second expect he could outrun or hide from the Outsider, the dark one who sees all. And now, similar to then, Corvo was brooding.

It was a fertile world, unlike home. The air was unpolluted, the trees grew taller than any building and stood old and proud as time itself. Corvo felt dwarfed by them and insignificant, even in his mystical power bestowed upon him by the Outsider and his mark. Even so, Corvo thought that maybe he was one of the few who saw these abilities as not quite his own. Separate. A gift that might be taken away, even though he knew that it wouldn’t be. The Outsider found him too entertaining. He wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

Feeling or no, there was no sign of the dark being, but there seldom was.

He would figure that his first step would be searching for a shrine to gain further instructions, but that would be too easy, and so he knew he was on his own for now. For now. For now, mortal men had to tend to mortal needs, something the Outsider seemed to occasionally overlook, out of a savage and childlike curiosity more than negligence, and Corvo was hungry. He took through the sprawling woods carefully, marvelling at the natural beauty. He saw life here, not like in Dunwall. Dunwall festered. His whole world festered. This place was fresh and a healthy green. Still, he stayed his hand when he spied animals, for fear that their meat carried disease yet unknown to him.

A long walk brought his weary soul from darkness to daybreak, from daybreak to just before twilight on the edge of a small hamlet. It looked like mostly a farming village, with small thatch huts and larger fields, wooden wagons and small sheds and there, an inn. Corvo breathed a sigh of relief, one that was cut short when he realised he did not know the currency here, much less have it. Gold was a currency that he knew spoke in every world, though, and that was easy enough to get, but he was done with brutality, tired of killing. He was determined to not let his awfulness poison this land. He supposed the next best thing was to look for work, but a world with jobs struck him as so ludicrous that he had to laugh to himself as he approached the inn.

As he walked closer to the door, it was thrown open and a man who looked too old for his age was tossed out along with a chorus of uproarious mocking revelry. Corvo first made to ignore him, but then thought better of it. First of all, he could take advantage of this man’s kindness, and second, he seemed so pitiful sprawled in the dirt, weeping, that even a man with a heart of stone, or with no heart at all, could not help but be moved. And so he stooped to help the shaking little man hobble to his feet, who first shrieked soft and high like a frightened rabbit, but realised that the dark (and oddly dressed) stranger meant him no harm, and he sobbed in relief. Corvo awkwardly gave the man his cane which had been tossed out into the dirt with him, and found himself at a loss for words, feeling vulnerable in this state of empathy-more-like-pity without his mask.

“Thank you” the man was whimpering now with every breath. His arms and indeed his whole body quaked under him and his cane, though sturdy, did not look like it would support him through this precarious sort of balance. Corvo did not know what to do and briefly considered possession before he realised he could be of no use. He did not know where this man lived and besides, bodily possession tended to make men violently ill, following. This man seemed so frail, though mostly in countenance, that he looked like his constitution simply could not handle such an invasion. Besides it being of no use, the impulse left a niggling darkness in his mind, and Corvo felt detestable.

“Erm… where do you live?” Corvo offered, almost afraid the man would topple over. “I could make sure you get home safely.” The surprised squeak belied the light that jumped to the man’s eyes and because Corvo looked strong and dark and dangerous and deadly, the man nodded eagerly while simultaneously ready to be scared for his life at any given moment. He limped off rather slowly, and Corvo had to check his pace to match the man’s speed, feeling sorrier for him by the minute as they approached the smallest cottage on the furthest edge of the village. The man offered him no questions, no words whatsoever, only spared glances, half-wary, half-awed. Corvo did not know what to say, and so the walk was a silent one. It wasn’t until the door opened and a small bundle of energy came hurtling out, a boy crying out “Papa!” and affixing himself to the man’s good leg. Only then did Corvo see the man’s spirits lift.

“Who’s this, Papa? Who’s this?”

The boy was not frightened, unlike his father, who was faltering for an explanation, one that avoided the more shameful truth, but Corvo spoke up

“I’m merely a traveller.” His voice was deep and even and calm, “I was looking for a place to stay and your father offered me lodging for the night.” He winced at the lie that he had not been expecting, this little darkness that even without glancing at the boy’s father, he knew he would get away with. He knew the man would be too scared to deny him, and so he bitterly pursued this advantage, meeting a dark gaze with the cowardly man, who hesitated before nodding enthusiastically, as though he was trying to escape a lashing, though he had done nothing wrong. This made Corvo feel even worse.

The boy didn’t notice this subtle shift in energies, and so he crowed with excitement, taking Corvo by the hand and pulling him inside, demanding stories of his adventures. Corvo could not help but be led along, with a small apologetic smile in the man’s direction who hobbled after them into the hut, “Now wait just a second, Bae!” The man started, thinking better of his next words, “put a pot of water on and we’ll make dinner.” Corvo did not wonder until now whether this might be the man the Outsider had spoken of.

Corvo thoroughly enjoyed the stewed potatoes and did not mind sleeping on the floor, where there was no pestilence to be seen except for in his own mind.


End file.
